corpse

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A dead body, especially of a person.

   The hikers discovered a corpse at the bottom of the cliff.

From Middle English, from earlier corse, from Old French cors, from Latin corpus (“body”). Displaced native English likam and lich. The ⟨p⟩ was inserted due to the original Latin spelling. Doublet of corps and corpus, and distantly of riff (via Proto-Indo-European). The verb sense derives from the notion of being unable to control laughter while acting as dead body.

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